Candi and Ryan had a fabulous wedding on Sunday. The ceremony was in Wightman Chapel at the amazing Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville. SBC has beautiful arches, windows, stone, and woodwork that make it a beautiful wedding venue. A photographer could spend several hours exhausting all of the stunning photo spots there. Candi and Ryan did choose to see each other before the ceremony and do all of the formal group photos - a decision that lets couples spend more time together on their wedding day and get more great photographs together.
While candid shots can capture the action and mood of the day and are a very necessary part of wedding coverage, I do love a beautiful portrait.
While most of the day was very relaxed, Candi and Ryan were excited to run through their recessional and bubble exit (although Ryan had some trouble keeping up).
After a few night portraits, we headed to the reception at Maggiano's Little Italy. As perfect as Scarritt Bennett is for ceremonies, Maggiano's is an excellent choice for a reception. Although they don't seem to have room for really large crowds, the food ranks right up there with some of the best wedding food I've ever had, and they definitely don't skimp on the serving sizes. Although most of the guests seemed to be too full to even eat another bite, I always appreciate a good dessert, and there were lots of delicious choices. There was even a "bleeding armadillo cake" just like in the movie Steal Magnolias. After the couple cut the cake, Ryan ceremoniously presented the tail piece to a special guest.
Although there wasn't any real cake smashing going on, Candi did manage to smear a bit of icing on Ryan's face. She proceeded to cleaned him up with a napkin, but he took a quicker route to cleaning the icing off of her.
The guests were treated to a fun photo slideshow from the couple.
Some wedding crowds go a little overboard with the bells on the tables, but this group rang them just often enough. When you hear bells, you know there's a great photo opportunity.
With the beautiful venue, sweet and happy couple, and amazing food, it really was a great wedding day. After a road trip through the North East (which is beautiful this time of year), the couple will be heading to Hawaii where Ryan will be reporting for duty at Pearl Harbor. As part of the armed forces, they both deserve our respect and gratitude, and I was very honored to have been a part of their important day.